The Carers’ (Scotland) Act 2016 has become law in Scotland and was implemented from the 1st April 2018.
Primarily among these is that anyone who identifies as a carer or is identified by a worker as a carer is entitled to an Adult Carer Support Plan or Young Carers Statement.
These should set out how caring impacts on aspects of your life, what support you may be entitled to as a carer and what difference the support would make to your life both as a carer and away from caring responsibilities.
Although the support you are entitled to is linked to an eligibility criteria set by East Renfrewshire HSCP we would encourage all carers to take up the offer of an Adult Carer Support Plan or Young carers Statement as there will be many circumstances when support can be provided through universal services and local community groups without requiring any involvement from health and social care professionals.
Should your plan identify that additional support maybe required from the Health & Social Care Partnership we can, with your permission share our recommendations with the relevant teams.
The Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 also has a range of other new duties including carers entitlement to short breaks, involvement in hospital discharge planning, access to self- directed support and emergency planning for carers.
The attachments below provide information on a range of new legal responsibilities that local authorities are now responsible for: